 |
| Counter-clockwise. Inside lane. |
It'll be a challenge for racing as it's very easy to get loose in that turn, but I plan on racing the cars hard today, so I expect offs. Which car that ends up helping is hard to say.
Pre-Race Notes:
Due to the failed experiment of running the Shell Ford with the spur gear on the inside, it has since been moved back to the outside and has run about 200 break-in laps. It's back to its prior settings, and is ready to race.
All cars have been cleaned, oiled and tires have been cleaned with a newer, stickier, finer tape. It took considerable crap off the tires, so I'm expecting good lap times.
Team Notes:
Alfa: body float light/no pod float
Controller Settings:
 |
| Most notable settings here are the Power Trim at 12 o'clock and the Curve/Max set to 4. The car will react quickly, with plenty of power and a burst of speed for the straights. There's enough max power there to send the car right off the track. |
_________________________________________________________________________________
Shell Ford: body float light/no pod float
Controller Settings:
 |
| Here, the Power Trim has been turned to about 11 o'clock to give it a little more play with the trigger....or making it mushy, if you will. |
_________________________________________________________________________________
Gulf Ford: body float medium/no pod float
Controller Settings:
 |
| The settings are similar to the Shell Ford with one exception: Curve/Max was turned down to 3 so the car would make it around the track. 4 was too strong of a setting for max power, forcing it to spin in the curves. |
Regarding Body Float:
Looseness is a relative thing, and it's hard to say "1/2 turn here, 1/4 turn there", as there are differences in all cars. So I look at it a little differently. I'd consider "body float light" to be the minimal setting to get the body just enough space to wiggle on the chassis [that varies on my cars from turning the screws anywhere between 1/4 and 1/2 a turn], while "body float medium" would be set up more like a loose body sitting on the chassis [1/2 turn +], with significantly more play. Any more slack and I don't think there would be much more body float. Body float heavy? hmm....alrighty then. I'll never go that loose, so how about calling "heavy" 1 turn each. Doesn't matter here.
_________________________________________________________________________________
RESULTS [Race 12 of 20]
Car Time Offs Points
Alfa Romeo 5:33.96 3 5
Shell Ford 5:47.33 6 3
Gulf Ford 6:11.51 9 1
Split Times
Car Lap 0-25 Lap 26-50 Lap 51-75 Lap 76-100
Alfa 1:24.37 1:23.17 1:24.79 1:21.62
Shell 1:23.90 1:32.50 1:24.72 1:26.19
Gulf 1:32.15 1:38.04 1:31.79 1:29.52
The split times tell the whole story. I thought 3 offs with the Alfa was going to put it out of contention, but wasn't expecting the Fords to handle so poorly on the track. That's an advantage to starting the race with the Alfa [whoever won the last race starts the next one]; it gets a chance to set the pace, and it's so dang fast now that it's getting hard to catch. It went off once in each of the first three time periods and still clocked fast times.
The Shell Ford started well, but then started crashing in the second time period. It went off three times in 10 laps, then stretched that out a bit. It did pretty well in the third period, but it was too far behind to win by then. A couple more crashes in the last period really drove the point home. The Alfa improved almost the entire race, while the Fords did not.
The Gulf Ford was a mess. NINE offs. I almost DNF'd it, it hurt so much to watch it struggle like a beached whale out there. I believe that this race seals its fate as far as the championship goes. Because of this, I'm going to put all my focus on this car and improving it to become a spoiler. Full overhaul coming. I'll document the whole thing, of course.
Standings [Race 12 of 20]:
Car Points Total
Alfa Romeo 5 55
Shell Ford 3 50
Gulf Ford 1 37
_________________________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment